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tv   Martin Bashir  MSNBC  November 16, 2012 1:00pm-2:00pm PST

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oh, bag of weed. >> very serious proctology exam. >> certainly the break in at the watergate hotel was not nearly as important as failing to define a terrorist attack. >> this morning four-star general david petraeus talked before closed door intel hearings on benghazi. >> he essentially is a citizen now and can let it fly. >> he thought all along he made it clear that there was significant terrorist involvement, this and is not my recollection. >> he also knew he was under investigation by the fbi, speaking of general petraeus. that's the big question. >> then the president is saying i didn't know until two days after the election. >> i have to say this, that speculation is absolutely reckless and it has no fact base at all and it really is a disgrace to a man. >> haen days are, indeed, here again. ♪
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>> after a hard-won re-election fight, it's been a high-stakes return to the business of governing for the president of the united states. today he hosted congressional leaders at the white house to begin working on what he called the urgent business of reaching an agreement on taxes and spending cuts by the end of next month. this afternoon the president greeted a diverse range of civic leaders at the white house and, of course, he's preparing for his impending tour of southeast asia which begins at the week end. so that's what's been going on at the white house. or is it? >> the president of the united states did not tell the american people the truth about the attacks that took four brave americans' lives. >> the president himself has intentionally misinformed, read that lied, to the american people in the aftermath of this tragedy. this is not simply a cover-up of
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a third rate burglary. we have four of our diplomatic personnel dead. >> this widespread cover-up in fact continues today. >> what altered their talking spounts. >> general petraeus' testimony today has really put this dead cat right on the white house's doorstep. >> turns out general petraeus has left a dead feline at the doorstep of the white house. investigation pending into what exactly his relationship was to said cat, it's possible there were some polaroid photos involved, but dead cats notwithstanding, suppose there was fluid information coming out after a tumultuous attack in libya. that would be expected, wouldn't it? or could it be that the president's opponent and their media wing are trying to cook up a controversy where there isn't one? >> that it's just politically very inconvenient less than two months away from an election to have a terrorist attack that will he can pose the errors and
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fallacies of the obama administration's policies. >> okay. so this is part of the twilight zone narrative in which superstorm sandy or so-called presidential gifts to minorities in this case a benghazi cover-up conspiracy is to blame for republicans losing the election. now, this is not to say that there can't be questions about what happened in benghazi. four americans died, and we must prevent such a tragedy ever happening again. but to suggest the phrasing of the perpetrators as al qaeda or extremist elements amounts to a vast conspiracy is, frankly, ridiculous. just for recollection's sake, let's remember the very real consequences of the bush administration's actions on faulty intelligence regarding iraq and a guy called saddam hussein. >> we were told by no less a person by your own secretary of state that he had an active and
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ongoing program for acquiring and developing weapons of mass destruction. >> and i fully believe that all of the evidence on that is not yet in. >> yes, apparently ambassador bolton believes in intelligence can be quite fluid in some circumstances, up to four years later. let's get right to our panel now. richard wolffe is vice president and executive editor of msnbc.com and msnbc political analyst karen finney, both are with us here in new york. so, karen, the latest "twilight" movie "breaking down" has just been released. it stars kristin stewart, mitt romney, and members of fox news. just to be clear, the president won re-election because, and tell us which, a goody bag of gifts, altered talking points, or hurricane sandy. which was it? >> actually it was the bureau of labor stats messing around with the data. that's what it was. you forgot that one. >> i'm glad you answered that. that's the sole reason he won. >> it has nothing to do with the
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fact that even as the president pointed out this week, more people than who voted with him agree with him. >> la, la, la, talking points, benghazi, latinos, minorities, gifts, presents, presents, presents. forget about that. richard. contraception. the world appears to have moved on. the president as we know is attempting to address the issue of the financial fiscal cliff. he's traveling overseas, but how long will it be that his opponents will hang onto this benghazi controversy? give us an assessment of how long you think that will be? >> i think there are some different voices in the republican party emerging. listen to what the republican governors are saying. people who have to actually get elected, number one, unlike some people in the conservative echo chamber, people who have to get elected statewide as opposed to just the gerrymandered house district. they understand there's a reasonable center and do you actually need to get a majority
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of those people as well as your base to show up to get elected. those governors are saying, hey, let's not do this. we have to get back into the real world and maybe there are policy changes, heaven forbid, we need to talk about. if fox news wants to lead the republican party down a path where they're not in the real world, they're not even talking about the economy anymore, they're not talking about anything that speaks to what voters cared about in this election, okay, if they want to relitigate the nixon era, it's cheaper than other forms of self-medication but it's totally delusional. the president has serious challenges challenges, the country does, whether it's taxes jobs, and there are a few things going on in the rest of the world which we should be talking about. benghazi is complicated, as you point out quite rightly. john mccain wanted to arm gadhafi, then he wanted to arm the rebels, and now he's complaining that there are some jihadists out there who have the
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weapons to take on minimal security protecting american diplomats. get real. they should know what the real world is like. >> and this is the politics of the false equivalency. they're consistently trying to say that this is a watergate, iran contra. we've had several instances where they've tried to compare it to things that happened during the bush years which actually lying about weapons of mass destruction which it took them a year to figure that out and we're talking about five days that it took our intelligence guys to get a clearer picture of what was going on. >> no withstanding the fact that 120,000 iraqis lost their lives. i want to quote to you the great televangelist franklin graham, he thinks we may have to hit economic armageddon before we're saved from this president i'm quoting. maybe god will have to bring our nation down to our knees to where you have a complete economic collapse and maybe at that point, maybe people will again begin to call upon the name of almighty god.
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now, once again i put it to you, is he reading the mayan apocalypse literature. >> it's nothing i have read about in the bible talking about caring for the poor and the needy. you know, my read of this at this point is this is the conservative movement literally coming unglued. they just -- every week we have a new rationale for why this, why that. instead of saying this is the country as it is. this is america as it is. part of the problem i think the republicans will have and part of the reason it's a long-term problem, it's not just him saying it, right? it is the gop chairman in the state of maine, you know, complaining that a horde of black people came in and voted. it's congressman ryan saying, urban turnout surprised them. this politics of division, it feels like now that the president has been re-elected, they don't care. it's no holds barred. let's just keep going and as you said, john mccain knows better. so there's no other reason for this kind of attack. >> are they getting some relief
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by ventilating all of their bile immediately after this election? >> look, losing is hard. there were plenty of democrats -- >> it is hard to lose, but don't you shake the hand of your opponent and say well-played, you beat me? >> not in this case. when the soviet union collapsed there were plenty of people who said it was only because communism wasn't pure enough. >> fair enough. >> you can be in the state of denial for a very long time, and it may be comforting to be in that position but at some point rational minds say we're never going to wine like this. i think those rational voices are out there and that's why the pushback against mitt romney's comments from governors christie and jindal and, you know, martinez. they're the national figure that is this party has to deal with much more than maybe someone running a prime time hour on another channel. >> problem i have with this having been at the democratic party in 2005 when we were licking our wounds from 2004 and trying to understand what
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happened and what changes we needed to make, you didn't see this kind of vial talk. instead, we said what can we do differently. it was the 350-stiate strategy d the idea that you have to ask them for their vote, not insult half the country over and over and over again. >> karen, richard, thank you so much. more on the president's attempt at reconciliation. he even bought the birthday boy a bottle of wine. >> we won't embarrass him with a cake because we didn't know how many candles were needed. >> yeah, right. >> but we do want to wish him a happy birthday. >> thank you, thank you. [ female announcer ] today, jason is here to volunteer to help those in need. when a twinge of back pain surprises him. morning starts in high spirits, but there's a growing pain in his lower back. as lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. but after a long day of helping others, he gets some helpful advice.
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david petraeus made the most
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unshocking statement of this whole scandal thursday when he told a reporter he'd resigned because of an affair. that's not exactly breaking news. so why would he feel the need to state the obvious? because some on the right apparently have trouble believing the obvious. the idea that a man would resign a position after not meeting his own standard of honor is apparently so foreign to them that they prefer to engage in spurious and lurid speculation. >> the regime is holding the scandal over petraeus' head for favorable benghazi testimony. >> was he influenced by the fact that he knew his fate was held by people in the administration at that time? >> joining us now from washington is dana milbank, a political columnist for "the washington post," and julian epstein, a democratic strategist. welcome to you both. if i might start with you, dana, i did think that benghazi was about four dead americans, but now i'm being told that it's
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about hi jinx in the officers mess and adultery. >> it's all of the above. it's mushroomed into quite a thing here and it continues to occur after the election. i have a high respect for my "washington post" colleague charles krauthammer, somewhat else respect for limbaugh, but the whole thing would have seemed to be disproven today when petraeus goes to capitol hill, shows up and says exactly what everybody else in the administration has been saying now. if it was some sort of an effort to blackmail, he's now been outed, the whole thing happened, and he's, you know, he hasn't basically changed his tune. i'm not clear how that all works out. >> right. okay. julian, geraldo rivera is playing the role of truth teller on this particular story on fox. take a listen to this. >> and it really is a disgrace to a man who has served us
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honorable -- and a man who has -- >> let's not argue. >> it's a question. >> he saved our ass in iraq. >> blaming a video and then going -- >> why -- let's not argue about david petraeus' intreg rit. >> you have just -- >> what has to happen -- >> i asked a question that a lot of other people are asking. >> julian, i hope you were able to understand that. >> i was not. >> mr. petraeus says he -- i'll explain it. mr. petraeus says he resigned because he had not met his own high standards for decency and honor. why is this such a foreign concept to some on that couch? >> well, this is the inspector clue sow wing of the conservative movement with a long and not too proud lineage. same group of people who you remember dan burton after vin vince -- committed sue said shot a mellon. this is the same people that pushed the fast and furious
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controversy. in addition to everything dana just said, which shows quite plainly that the theory is false, this is just wrong for a number of reasons. one is this whole blackmail idea, one, there's no evidence on it. two is anybody that's ever had any exposure whatsoever to an fbi investigation knows its virtually impossible to carry something like that off. third is it's entirely illogi l illogical. the issue going on in enghazi we have learned is a -- was a cia operation at an outpost, and the criticism that the republicans seem to be making is that the reason that the attacks were successful was because someone had failed to provide enough security personnel. given that it's a cia operation, it seems to me that if there is going to be criticism about the lack of security personnel, the criticism would fall on the cia, not the white house. so the idea that the white house would be blackmailing petraeus to shield them from criticism is absurd given the fact if there
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will be any criticism at the end of the day, the criticism is likely to be on the cia. so this is just so fanciful and so ridiculous and idiotic on so many different levels it's hard to know where to start. >> right. fair enough. dana, i want to play for you two pieces of sound, both from republican congressmen peter king. the first is from last night before today's hearing where mr. king sounded ready to sac the whole white house. take a listen. >> so when the president says that susan rice was giving out -- talking about the most updated and -- fully documented intelligence that the intelligence community had, that's not true. >> last night the message was that susan rice was disseminating incorrect intelligence and the president is wrong for defending her. now here is mr. king today after an intelligence briefing. >> did he seem concerned that things had been changed? was that surprising to you? >> he seemed to say at the time
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they didn't realize the full significance of that and that or an unclassified statement it was acceptable. again, it's still very vague. >> petraeus told king today that, quote, for an unclassified statement this was acceptable. again, it's still very vague. dana, to paraphrase the president, republicans got out in front of their own skis on this one, didn't they? >> yes. well, in congress they have a tradition of revising and extending their remarks and i think peter king -- what peter king just said was "never mind." >> what he said earlier, what do we do with that? >> he was operating on incomplete information. >> the story evolved. >> like susan rice was earlier. >> there's an important lesson here, martin, which is if you take your political cues from don trump's twitter feed, you will end up sticking your tail between your legs. >> thank you very much, julian epstein and dana milbank. stay with us. much more ahead.
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between your legs.
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at his press conference earlier this week the president said that the people of america wanted action to address the fiscal challenges that are fast approaching in january. and as he welcomed congressional leaders from both parties to the white house today, he sounded an optimistic note about the way forward, as did speaker boehner after the meeting. >> my hope is that this is going to be the beginning of a fruitful process where we're able to come to an agreement that will reduce our deficit in a balanced way. >> to show our seriousness, we have put revenue on the table as long as it's accompanied by significant spending cuts. >> nbc's mike viqueira joins us live from the white house. mike, are there any signs, i have to put this to you, that the president may be able to
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persuade republicans at least to maintain the bush tax cuts on those making less than $250,000 a year? is there any sign that he's going to be able to persuade them on that? >> reporter: well, i think that he would be able to persuade them to extend those tax cuts, but he may not be able to persuade them to decouple them from those making more than $250,000 a year, martin. i don't mean to be flip, but that does remain at the end of the day here after the big root velt room photo-op the main sticking point. it's clear democrats feel they have the upper hand as do democrats here in the person of the white house staff and the president after the election, after the polls showed that voters for the most part, a majority, are behind the president in his effort to do that. this is something democrats both nationwide and on capitol hill will insist he sticks to his guns on. the democrats i talked to today want more concrete commitments
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now about what's going to be happening with tax reform, what's going to be happening with entitlement reform. republicans for the most part are talking about a much longer horizon. perhaps when things calm down and democrats no longer have that political upper hand, six months, even a year the speaker has talked about. >> okay. now, the president also made mention of speaker boehner's birthday tomorrow and gave him a very fine bottle of italian vintage, but what the president can do mike viqueira does, too, and i understand that you have actually visited that very vineyard with your dear mom, is that rit right ? >> it is and so kind of you to mention. it is in italy. he did give it to the speaker for his 63rd birthday a bottle of wine that retails for about $125 at local liquor stores. so certainly a nice glass of wine. i have had it. it's very smooth. >> you're a good man and a good
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son. nbc's mike viqueira. thank you, mike. >> thank you. >> stay with us. the week's "top lines" are coming up. oh, let me guess --ou see this? more washington gridlock. no, it's worse -- look, our taxes are about to go up. not the taxes on our dividends though, right? that's a big part of our retirement. oh, no, it's dividends, too. the rate on our dividends would more than double. but we depend on our dividends to help pay our bills. we worked hard to save. well, the president and congress have got to work together to stop this dividend tax hike. before it's too late.
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nothing artificial. ♪ it's all that sweet ever needs to be. new nectresse. sweetness naturally. from a very insulting romney return to a most uncomfortable probe for the gop. here are today's "top lines." sabotage. >> i still love you, america. >> romney was a poopy head. >> you don't want to talk about immigration reform? a hispanic gay woman is born every eight seconds. >> it's one thing to shoot yourself in in the foot, just don't reload the gun. >> your uterus is safe for another four years. >> i love you women. >> i was wrong last night. >> i am the main reason the republican party will keep losing. >> when we saw the turnout in urban areas. >> ward, june, wally, and the
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beav. out of here. >> you have nothing to complain about. >> want to smoke drugs? fine. >> it was a well-run campaign. >> that's one of the dumbest questions i have ever heard. >> sometimes you have to confront reality. >> this david petraeus scandal. >> a good looking lady throwing herself at him. he's a man. >> justin bieber in there. >> one of the two people may be a loon. >> what does this woman smell like? >> watching cnn with a virginia slim in one hand and a box of after 8s in the other. >> i have a mandate. >> it's a joke. >> tomorrow is speaker boehner's birthday. ♪ this is your birthday song >> i totally forgot what i was going to say. >> the giving away free stuff is a hard thing to compete with. >> bag of weed, contraception variety back. pinata filled with green cards. >> this is completely unhelpful. >> we have to give our political organization a proctology exam. >> they should go aefer me. >> we're not picking on anybody. >> happy days. >> suck up friends in the
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mainstream media. >> wow, did that change his testimony. >> that speculation is reckless. >> i didn't say it was my personal belief. >> this is as bad as watergate but nobody died in watergate. >> half the country never heard of watergate. >> unlike watergate, this scandal lost lives. >> are you sure on this story? >> absolutely. >> break in at the watergate hotel. >> you're right. >> i'm not a crook. >> i want to go right to the reverend al sharpton, host of "politics nations" here on msnbc who was at the white house for a meeting the president held with civic leaders from around the nation. the reverend sharpton was there in his capacity as leader of the national action network, the civil rights group he founded in 1991. good afternoon, sir. we're delighted to have you with us. >> glad to be with you, martin. >> how would you characterize the president's mood? obviously many of us have not had the opportunity to see him since the election itself. how is he? how is he reacting? >> he seemed very energized.
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he seemed very focused. he met this morning with congressional leaders. he met with 12 of us that lead various organizations in the african-american latino students, and it was a very open and candid meeting about the fiscal cliff. he's committed as he said publicly. he said to us privately that he's not going to back up in terms of protecting the middle class tax cut that is scheduled to expire at the end of the month. and we all, despite whatever other views we have, are committed to standing with him on that. >> now, you referred and referenced a number of the groups that you yourself represent one, latino groups, students, a number of these people were described, as you know, by mitt romney, as seeking free stuff. these are the people who the president apparently duped into voting for him. did that issue come up at all today? >> no. i mean, first of all, you had
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women groups there. you had the sister simone from the nuns on the bus. what free stuff? are we saying middle class americans when we say that they should not have to pay or extend the tax cut, that that's free stuff for middle class americans whether it's in north dakota or north brooklyn, but when we give loopholes to big corporations or tax cuts to the wealthy, that's not a gift? i mean, i think it's absurd. it's insulting, and it's offensive. i think americans voted. they made it clear where they wanted to go. and i think that rather than mr. romney trying some late minute class warfare or race-baiting, he needs to get in step with where the american people are. >> well, you are a ordained minister, and speaking of strange statements we heard today from franklin graham, son of billy graham. mr. graham tells a right wing
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website that the president's re-election puts the nation on, and i'm quoting him, a path of destruction and suggested that only, quote, complete economic collapse can put the nation back on the path to godliness. i thought, sir, that godliness was about taking care of the poor and the marginalized. mr. graham seems to be suggesting that the president's concern for these individuals, those individuals represented by people like yourself, that this is a path to destruction. >> well, i think that what mr. graham's message is certainly something that we could say that we were on the way to economic collapse, and this president brought us back. so not only is he theologically unsound, he's historically inaccurate. the fact of the matter is if he was paying attention, we almost went to our knees, and now we're working our way back 32 months
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of job creation. we're seeing the whole economy starting a recovery, so i think mr. graham is off base both historically, he is theologically way off base because the whole concept is that jesus came for the downtrodden, the left out, and the lost. he did not come to protect those that were at the top of the economic ladder, and i think that rather than try to use the bible to justify the rich, they ought to read the bible where jesus challenged the rich and their relationship as to how they dell with the poor. >> reverend al sharpton, sir, straight out of a meeting with the president. thank you, sir, so much for joining us. >> thank you, martin. >> you can hear more from the reverend on his white house visit tonight at 6:00 p.m. eastern right here on "politics nati nation" on msnbc. lets turn to our panel.
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i have toure, my colleague, with me, and also msnbc contributor jonathan capehart of the "washington post." toure, we were talking earlier about the conspiracy theories that are flying, the so-called benghazi cover-up that senators mccain and graham are upset about. they say it's bigger than watergate. >> whoa, that's huge. oh, my goodness. well, there must be some evidence to suggest that, right? >> there must be. >> oh, wait, there's none so the right begins with this thesis that this is a scandal of epic proportions and their evidence is we have questions, and those questions are not being answered, and as john than knna, questions are not evidence. i don't understand how they make that leap. this is a complex cia operation that was interrupted by a terrorist attack. the cia is never going to tell you everything that they are doing or did as they should not. but that allows a lot of innuendo room for the right to say, see, we're not getting answers, not getting
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transparency. you can't because it's an intelligence community. they can't tell you everything. stop making it a scandal when you begin with the idea it's a scandal and then we're going to fill in backwards the details. >> the crime of watergate was much bigger than a mere burglary as you know. it was about richard nixon's attempt to rig an election and subvert the democratic process itself. are these guys such fanatics that they've forgotten the basic facts of their own country's history? >> yes. >> thank you. >> to put it shortly, yes, they have. martin, i assume you do and toure, i live in the reality-based community. >> amen. >> and i really wish that senators graham and mccain and others would immigrate over here to our side because susan rice -- this whole focus is on u.n. ambassador susan rice and what she said on the sunday shows saying that this -- the demonstrations that happened that led to the ultimate attack on the consulate in benghazi was
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a spontaneous demonstration from people upset about that video. now, what we know and have known for at least a couple weeks now, she was -- rice was speaking off the talking points provided to her and the house intelligence committee from the intelligence community, from the cia. and let me just read this one thing. the currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the u.s. embassy in cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the u.s. post in benghazi and subsequently its annex. the last thing is the investigation is ongoing and the u.s. government is working with the libyan authorities to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of u.s. citizens. that's reality. >> conspiracy, conspiracy, conspiracy. >> the president's most passionate moment of the week is his moment when he was defending susan rice in the press conference. he seemed like i'm standing up
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to a bully. he stepped out of that professorial aloof poos tour we sometimes think he's in. he seemed very animated. >> he was exactly the same in that presidential debate when he is accused of not labeling this a terrorist attack and he was fuming again in front of mitt romney. >> you want a problem come to me because i'm the problem, not the u.n. ambassador. but by the way, john mccain who wants to challenge susan rice's probity in these sort of things, where was he when they did the classified hearing about benghazi yesterday? he couldn't make it because he had a previously scheduled engagement to give a press conference to dis the president. does he really care about the facts or does he want to say in the alternate reality. jonathan, you're probably like me, we're not giving them a green card to immigrate to the reality away from the alternate reality. >> is mr. mccain operating in reality? >> no. you're not operating in reality if you're reading the information we already have that's already available and
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you're still whipping up conspiracy theories and weaving tall tales out of nothing. as toure pointed out, senator mccain, how about you actually be in the hearings to hear what's been going on and happening instead of standing in front of the cameras and beating poor susan rice to death. it makes no sense and it's irresponsible. >> it's clear that john mccain is all about sour grapes right now as we often say on our show "the cycle" which airs at 23 o'clock on msnbc. >> you're not come on here again for doing that. toure, and john thnathan capeha thank you. stay with us. >> he never gave a reason why to vote for mitt romney. barack obama gave at least a reason why to vote for him to his supporters, albeit wrong. governor romney -- >> no, the reason wasn't wrong though. mr. obama said quite clearly, if you vote for me i'm going to give you money. am i wrong, miss schaefer, am i wrong about this? [ woman ] ring. ring.
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the most highly recommended bed in america. we here want to wish a very happy birthday from all of us to speaker john boehner, 63 years young tomorrow. we also hope it isn't too late for the speaker to turn over a new leaf in his leadership of the house of representatives. for two years now you have run the lower chamber as if obstructing the president was more important than allowing the country to make progress. there was an emphatic election victory which only shows the people's desire for compromise. john larson from connecticut is joining us. >> good afternoon. >> the president's first term, as you know, was marked by unprecedented levels of obstruction, the debt ceiling do backcle led to the downgrading of the u.s. we know the stock market is already showing signs of anxiety, and the president has just won an overwhelming
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victory. what more does speaker boehner require to reach an agreement with the president? >> well, i think speaker boehner has struck the right tone. clearly both from election -- the day after the election and including today we had the opportunity to meet with leader pelosi afterwards who was very encouraging about the meeting that took place in the white house, and i think boehner has always been, who is an institutionalist, has always cared deeply about this and would have struck the right deal. it's always been that element within the republican conference that has kept him from getting there, but i see a different kind of resolve and obviously, martin, for the interests of the country we hope that they don't lead us off this cliff that, as you point out, is artificially created by them, and so there's -- i think there's great hope that we can get this accomplished and set up the framework for the next session.
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>> okay. well, i want to play something for you of that encapsulates the outlook of some republicans. listen to this. >> i mean, it's a proven political strategy, which is give a bunch of money from the government to a group and, guess what, they'll vote for you. let me tell you what i would do if i was a democrat running four years from now? i'd say you know what, dental care ought to be included in obama care. >> now, first of all, the affordable care act does actually provide dental care for children, but how can you find agreement with people who don't just reject any form of government support, they actually believe that providing assistance to those in need is actually flat out wrong? >> and i don't think they completely understand both how offensive and insulting their remarks come to the hard-working people all across this country. i would only add that it's part of why we had so many record
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gains in the house of representatives and why we added to our margins in the senate and why president obama is president. i think smart republicans get this, and they understand what they have to do. and more importantly, their effort, you know, where they would have rather seen obama fail than the nation succeed, well, that's over. it's time to turn the page. it's time to work together. martin, as you have said on this program many times, the great strength of this nation is both our rugged individualism and individuality and how we need to pull together as a community. this is one of those times, and as we approach our great holiday of thanksgiving, shouldn't we be focused on those americans out of work, put them back to work, we can do that. in the time period that we have. we can deal with the tax issue in a way that impacts the middle class, but everybody so that we're sending clear messages and
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then deal long term with the issues of bending the costs of health care in general at 17% of our gross domestic product and lowering that so we're not impacting the benefits that we provide beneficiaries. there's great room here and a great opportunity. we'll see if our colleagues on the other side have the will to cooperate and make this happen and put the interests of america first. >> congressman john larson, a wonderfully optimistic and positive view. thank you, sir. >> thank you, martin. >> much more ahead, but first, fox and friends on how the fair and balanced folks hire their hosts. >> you and all the women of fox, i don't know who was the scout that got you guys, but they rock. >> it was brian. but thank you very much. that's very sweet. >> it was, it was actually we went into the victoria's secret catalog and we said can any of these people talk? and they all could and they all
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air sirens were heard throughout jerusalem today after hamas militants launched rocket attacks. israel's army radio says missiles landed just outside jerusalem and there are no reported casualties. but it marks a worrying escalation following an israeli air strike on wednesday that killed hamas' military leader. since then an israeli military spokesman says more than 500 missiles have been fired from gaza into israel. joining us now is michael o'hanlon, who is director of research and a senior foreign policy fellow at the brookings institution and with us here in new york, former u.s. ambassador mark ginsberg, who is also a former white house adviser on the middle east.
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ambassador ginsberg, given the fact that these missile attacks occur almost on a routine basis across that border, why have things escalated this week? >> it is a question that no one really has a good answer to other than the attack on hamas' military leader. the fact of the matter is this escalation has resulted in a cross-border war that almost is beginning to resemble a 2008 war. why? perhaps hamas has decided on instig gation from iran that it basically needs to provoke the muslim brotherhood in egypt to be more supportive of it. perhaps it's iran wanting to deflect attention from syria. perhaps it's an effort by hamas to in effect bridle its credentials to prove to the palestinians on the west bank that its route is the best way to deal with israel. >> while britain and germany have both said hamas bears the
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brunt of the blame, mohamed morsi appears to lay some blame on the israelis. is he torn with his fellow islamists and the need to maintain the treaty obligations with israel? >> martin, if he isn't yet, he could be soon, and that's, of course, the real danger here. if this thing goes on just for a short time, then maybe we wind up okay. but if it goes on for days or weeks, like the 2008-2009 war that ambassador ginsberg referred to, then i think all bets are off as to just how long the egyptian regime can really sustain this stance of sort of being between the two. you know, in a broader sense, of course, the cease-fire that hamas had respected for a number of years never reflected a fundamental strategic change by hamas. it was more a temporary recognition that fighting the what i they had been before wasn't doing them any good. on the other hand in their own eyes, the cease-fire isn't doing them any good either.
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and so i think they're willing to maybe, as mark ginsberg said, maybe, you know, roll the dice a little, hope with the morsi government in place, maybe things can be different and maybe egypt has to take a different stand than in the past. they're gambling because they don't really like the status quo anyway. >> ambassador ginsberg, isn't the barely concealed hand here iran? the iranians supply the weaponry, hamas fires them across the border. >> there's no doubt that what's happened and it's symptomatic of what the danger is for israel around the borders, whether it's hezbollah where there's 60,000 similar missiles directed at israel, or hamas extended imperialistically and converting it into a failed state and use it as a funnel for iranian missile boats to basically unload supplies and tunnel them under into the sinai into gaza. that's the real danger here. there's almost a repeat of what essentially occurred before.
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indiscriminate weapons funneling into the sinai by iran. >> very quickly, mike, do you agree? >> yeah. i think so. i think -- and the dilemma, it's very hard to stop rockets from being moved around. so the old days there was an unnatural ability to put really almost a very tight perimeter around this strip, but with egypt's stance shifting and the basic geography of the situation, it's going to be hard to do that. so unfortunately, we could see this sort of skirmish or worse every so often in the future. >> how long does this go on for? >> it's going to go on until there's a cease-fire on the part of hamas to stop firing mifessis into israel and then israel will stand down. under the current situation, martin, with the prime minister -- israeli prime minister facing elections in january, he has to basically satisfy an unremitting requirement on the part of the israeli population to finally deal hamas a real immortal blow. thank you, gentlemen, both.
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